NAIROBI, 11 November (IRIN) - The UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) said on Thursday that it had received an unconfirmed report that some 1,500 armed men had attacked and burned six villages in South Darfur, killing 18 people earlier this week.

UNMIS said the report indicated that on Sunday and Monday, the armed group travelling on camels, horses and in vehicles killed the 18 victims, wounded 16 others, and attacked and burned the villages of Dar es Salam, Jamali, Funfo, Tabeldyad, Um Djantara and Um Putrum in the Gereida area of South Darfur.

The UN mission said that the African Union (AU) had been notified of those reports and intended to investigate them, the UN News Service reported.

In another development, Jan Pronk, the UN Secretary-General's special representative in Sudan, said he had informed the Sudanese government that a UN expert panel monitoring the arms embargo was mishandled last weekend.

Pronk reported that he had sent a diplomatic protest to the Sudanese ministry of foreign affairs over the incident on Saturday, in which two members of the panel had been manhandled, forcibly restrained and suffered abrasions, despite the fact that they had clearly identified themselves and their capacity.

He said that on Thursday he met Sudan's state minister of foreign affairs, who said the behaviour of Sudanese military intelligence "had been wrong" and promised that the panel's mission would not be hindered any further.

Sudan's western region of Darfur has been ravaged by a conflict that erupted in February 2003 when rebels took up arms to fight what they said was discrimination and oppression of the area by the Sudanese government.

The government stands accused of unleashing militia - known as the Janjawid - on civilians in an attempt to quash the rebellion. Some 3.3 million people continue to be affected by the conflict, according to the UN, of whom 1.8 million are internally displaced and 200,000 have fled to neighbouring Chad.

IMO, this is one of the biggest embarrassments not only for the UN, but for the US. We should have ALREADY done something with or without the Useless N.

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How? We don't have the manpower. We're already activating reservists and National Guard units. If we went into Darfur, we might need a draft or something just to provide the number of boots needed to get the job done. Now, if we went into Darfur, there's a good chance I would enlist, like, tomorrow, but there aren't enough of me around to make it happen without compulsory service.

How? We don't have the manpower. We're already activating reservists and National Guard units. If we went into Darfur, we might need a draft or something just to provide the number of boots needed to get the job done. Now, if we went into Darfur, there's a good chance I would enlist, like, tomorrow, but there aren't enough of me around to make it happen without compulsory service.

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But why not give them what they need to fight back? A version of lend/lease as it were. That's what I thought we should have done in Bosnia in the first place.

But why not give them what they need to fight back? A version of lend/lease as it were. That's what I thought we should have done in Bosnia in the first place.

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I agree with you on Darfur, and I felt the same way
about Bosnia.

I think the problem is that the political elites of the West,
embroiled in a cynical, hypocritical, wheels-within-wheels
relationship with the Muslim world, are willing to let places
like Darfur hang fire so as not to further inflame the already
pathological Muslim "street".

Christian and other minorities in the Muslim world will continue
to suffer, I'm afraid, because there is no end in sight to
the present Western policy of toadying. God knows where
and how it will all end.

Thank God for our staggering technical superiority, which
I believe will allow us to prevail eventually.

How? We don't have the manpower. We're already activating reservists and National Guard units. If we went into Darfur, we might need a draft or something just to provide the number of boots needed to get the job done. Now, if we went into Darfur, there's a good chance I would enlist, like, tomorrow, but there aren't enough of me around to make it happen without compulsory service.

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We effectively protected the Sunnis, Kurds, and Shia for 12 years in Iraq with nothing more than airpower. We have more than enough to draw a line in the sand.

The American people are not now willing enough
to go hauling off into the wilds of Sudan.

You mean those Americans who are cowering in a corner worried about nothing but protecting THEIR own sorry asses are not willing. These would be the same people hiding behind their computer screens demanding Bush do "something."

No matter what our abilities are, if we do not
have the will to use them, they are not enough.

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Those of us that have will always will while those who do not can figure some lie to tell themselves to justify standing on the sidelines watching the genocide of a people.

The question is: Where the Hell is UN in all of this? Isn't THIS what we're paying that pointless, self-serving bureaucracy to prevent?

If the UN was doing what it was supposed to instead of figuring out how to embezzle funds and argue over "happy's-to-glad's" we wouldn't be in Iraq, Afghanistan, nor would the systematic extermination of indigenous Africans be happening.

It disgusts me that the UN occupies prime real estate in our Nation, and that even a wooden nickel is tossed its way.

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